Anyone who has shared a vehicle knows it involves a little compromise. One driver shifts the seat up, while the other moves the mirrors and drops the steering wheel. It can get frustrating, fast.
For engineers at GM Canada, easing that handoff was a technological challenge worth taking on. Within weeks, the Ontario-based team developed code that uses individual key fobs to identify who has unlocked the vehicle and automatically load that person’s profile, including seat and steering wheel positions, favourite music, and saved destinations. After testing the feature for security, privacy, and other requirements, GM rolled it out across a much larger number of vehicles, wherever they are in the world.
“Canada stands at a very enviable point compared with many parts of the world.”
“We have a communication mechanism across our ecosystem to understand customers’ needs, and our teams are continuously working on identifying, innovating, and rolling out solutions,” said Jack Uppal, GM Canada president and managing director, in an interview with Betakit.
Uppal sees the feature as one small example of a broader transformation underway across the automotive industry. Automakers are becoming more like tech companies, using AI and software to expand what vehicles can do and rethink how they’re designed, driven, and improved over time.
Having led teams in China, India, Singapore, and the Middle East, Uppal has watched technology and mobility evolve at different speeds around the world. From that vantage point, he believes Canada has the talent and research strengths to help lead the next era of software-defined vehicles. That potential is backed by considerable industry investment, with automakers’ in-house R&D spending in Canada reaching $898 million in 2024, quadruple the amount spent a decade earlier.
“Canadian engineering talent is absolutely world-class,” he said, pointing to the country’s technical depth, strong academic foundation, and ability to take ideas beyond the lab and apply them to real-world problems at scale.
“Canada stands at a very enviable point compared with many parts of the world,” he said.
From Ontario to the world
More than 1,100 engineers work across GM Canada’s three Ontario campuses. Teams at the Canadian Technical Centres (CTCs) in Markham and Oshawa develop software and run simulations, while the 55-acre McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track allows them to test systems in real vehicles.
But Uppal is clear that they aren’t building solely for the Canadian market. Depending on the project, engineers here may lead testing or simulation, develop a particular layer of technology, or write code from beginning to end. Those innovations can then be incorporated into vehicles across GM’s wider global operations.
Super Cruise offers an example of how far that work can travel.
The hands-free driving technology—considered to be next-gen cruise control—relies on a combination of real-time cameras, radar, GPS, and precision LiDAR-scanned maps to help equipped vehicles steer, adjust their speed, and change lanes on compatible roads. The process was pioneered by engineers in Markham and has now been used to drive more than 1.6 billion kilometres throughout Canada and the US, according to the company. The same mapping approach is now being adapted for Europe, the Middle East, and South Korea, with the needs of each market considered from the start.
“Before we scale it or even pass it on to a single customer, that product would be built to comply with both the regulatory and customer needs in the markets where we want to sell that feature,” noted Uppal.
The Super Cruise system has also continued to evolve as engineers identify new ways drivers want to use it. Uppal pointed to towing as an example of a need that was particularly visible close to home.
“A lot of people, both in Western Canada and just from a lifestyle perspective, are pulling boats and trailers,” he said.
The original technology didn’t account for a trailer’s additional size, weight, and turning radius. Canadian engineers responded by developing a hands-free towing capability, taking it from “identifying the problem, writing the code, testing the code on the roads, and then being able to deploy it across millions of vehicles in North America.”
While Uppal described trailering as “perhaps more of a North American-relevant question,” he said the solution has been “very well received in many other parts of the world.”
Predictive technology and the future of mobility
Developing new features is one thing. Getting them into millions of vehicles quickly and conveniently is another. Over-the-air updates have changed that, allowing automakers to add or improve features after a vehicle is already on the road. GM reports that more than 4.5 million of its vehicles can currently receive these updates, with that number growing by roughly two million each year.
That can save drivers a trip to the service centre. For Uppal, however, it reflects GM’s broader goal of using software to improve both vehicle performance and the experience behind the wheel.
“Moving billions of people around the world is what we’ve done for the last 100 years. It makes me very confident that we’re going to be a company that’s going to move people for another 100 years.”
“We continue to enhance our advanced driver-assistance systems capability,” he said. “For customers, it’s a driving experience that becomes progressively safer, more intuitive, less stressful.”
Looking ahead, Uppal expects vehicles to move beyond simply responding to information in real time.
“We will be moving from a level of real-time computing and really starting to use AI as our footprint into predictive modelling,” he said.
By recognizing patterns and anticipating driving conditions, these systems could help vehicles perform better in snow, stop faster, and respond more effectively in complex traffic. Uppal also sees the potential to save drivers time and reduce congestion. GM’s near-term plans include deeper use of AI, including Gemini, as well as new technology in the next Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
That future won’t be limited to electric vehicles, he added, noting GM will continue investing in both EVs and traditional, internal-combustion vehicles as preferences and technologies evolve.
“We’ll be able to meet the customer and meet their needs where they are, and deliver what they need,” he said.
Through those shifts, Uppal expects Canada—which he described as a “big anchor” in GM’s North American software operations—to remain central to the work. For him, the industry may be changing, but the next era builds on what GM has spent the past century doing.
“Moving billions of people around the world is what we’ve done for the last 100 years,” he said. “It makes me very confident that we’re going to be a company that’s going to move people for another 100 years.”
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Explore GM Canada’s technology leadership—and discover why the future of mobility is being built right here in Canada: General Motors Canada: Pushing the Limits of Transportation & Technology
Feature image courtesy GM.